Testing claims about the first naval smoke screen

Could Captain Horvey's 1917 smoke screen really have been the first in history?

No; German smoke at Jutland and still earlier uses make the claim untenable.

German smoke at Jutland and earlier examples make the claimed 1917 first untenable. Modern publicity claims that label new ships the first drone carriers repeat the same mistake. HMS Agamemnon's operation of Queen Bee target drones in 1939 supplies a parallel warning: striking labels often ignore earlier cases that already satisfy the definition. The moment is a compact lesson in checking historical superlatives against precedent.